Senator Hauschild Fights to Bring Seasonal Recreation Property Taxes back to Local Northland School Districts

Hauschild’s Bill would Correct a Change from the Early 2000’s that Redirected Cabin Property Taxes away from Local School Districts

(ST. PAUL, Minn.) – Area schools would see an increase in funding thanks to legisla­tion carried by Senator Grant Hauschild (DFL-Hermantown) that was heard in the Education Finance Committee Tuesday, March 11^th.

The legislation, SF 1197, would correct changes that were made in the early 2000s that exempt­ed seasonal properties like cab­ins from paying any portion of school district operating levies or voter-approved referendum levies. For schools in rural ar­eas where much of the housing is seasonal, this could bring in hundreds of thousands of new dollars for their needs.

“This bill corrects a wrong in state policy, where some of our most rural school districts are losing out because high-end cabins and second homeown­ers are not paying towards the local operating levies for the school districts where their sec­ond-home resides,” said Sen. Hauschild. “With a new sea­sonal tax base replacement aid program, levy and referendum costs for local residents would be offset by as much as 50%, just by ensuring the wealthiest in our school districts pay their fair share for our kid’s educa­tion.”

Legislators heard firsthand from school districts that would be affected by this legis­lation, including testifiers from Ely, Grand Rapids, and Lake County. Ely Superintendent Anne Oelke testified remotely, outlining the budget shortfall facing her district and the like­lihood of cuts to come.

“The money generated by non-residential taxpayers should be directed back into our districts rather than redis­tributed back to the state gen­eral fund,” said Superintendent Oelke. “The passage of this bill is necessary to close the fund­ing gap.”

“Unfortunately, with that high percentage of seasonal recre­ation properties, they do not contribute to voter approved referendums, because they are excluded from the referendum market value tax rate. As a re­sult, the financial burden of supporting local schools falls disproportionately on our per­manent residents,” said Gina Kleive, Superintendent of Lake Superior School District. “We need this bill, and we need your help to get it there.”

At the conclusion of Tuesday’s hearing, SF 1197 was passed and now awaits a hearing in the Senate Taxes Committee.